Sunday Sitdown with Willie Geist - Remembering Dolly Parton

Episode Date: August 30, 2026

Dolly Parton's legacy as the queen of country music will always live on. In this week’s “Sunday Sitdown,” Willie Geist revisits his 2020 conversation with Dolly to talk about some of the stories behind her greatest hits, her philanthropy and her impact on American culture over the course of an iconic career.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey guys, Willie Geist here with another episode of the Sunday Sit Down podcast. My thanks as always for clicking and listening along. We've got a special look back this week at a conversation I had in 2020 with the one and only Dolly Parton. The news of her passing has really transcended so much of what we see in our culture and our politics and around the world these days, where people of all races and political stripes and religions have come together to say why Dolly was so special, why Dolly meant so. much to them, whether it was her music, her generosity, her spirit, her positive outlook on the world. We needed Dolly in this world, and we lost her recently. So hearts have broken around the country, but it's also a great time to celebrate who she is, who she was, what she stands for still today. So we thought we'd take a look back at one of my many conversations with her. This one, from November of 2020, I hate to plunge you back into the depths of the pandemic, but we got together over Zoom. We talked about her remarkable decades-long career,

her journey from that cabin in East Tennessee in the mountains with dirt floors, no running water, no electricity, 11 siblings living together to the other side of the mountain, not so many years later, to have her own theme park, Dollywood, because of all she had done and how hard she had worked and how she had so attracted the love and attention of people around the world.

So a great conversation. She had at the time, just for reference, a holiday album coming out called a Holly Dolly Christmas, a book, an amazing book, if you can get your hands on it. Songteller, My Life in Lyrics tells the story behind all of her songs. She wrote like 3,000 of them over the course of her career, the inspiration for songs like Jolene, talked about her philanthropy. And as always, it was kind of a holiday message in a divided country, in the country in the middle of a pandemic about how we can stay together through all this. I think it really captures the spirit of this extraordinary woman, this one-of-a-kind woman, this what many have been calling lately, this angel on earth, Dolly Parton. So sit back, relax, and enjoy a conversation with Dolly Parton on the Sunday Sit Down podcast.

Hello, Dolly, it's so good to see you. Well, hello, I'd rather see you in person, but this is good as it's going to get I get right now. I know. I've been down there to Dollywood with you so many times. I wish I was sitting there with you, but here we are talking on a computer. strange times, aren't they? Well, they are crazy times. Dollar was doing pretty good in spite of it. We're being careful and safe and all that.

But I'm just happy to be here with you. We're making, we always make do whatever's going on, don't? We do, we do. So you've got your Christmas set up. I've got a couple lights here. I just told you I've got my little Santa mug here, all for you, Dolly. So we should explain why we're in that Christmas spirit. And it's a couple of reasons.

But first of all, the wonderful Christmas album that's already out, Holly Dolly Christmas. Why did you feel like this was the year for a Dolly Parton Christmas album? Well, I've been wanting to do another Christmas album for a long time. You know, my album with Kenny Rogers once upon Christmas was really a big hit. And I just loved Kenny. And I thought, well, that's been 30 years. So I need to do another one.

Need to do something on my own. So I wanted to write a few Christmas songs and I had the time to do it since we had kind of all hold up at home. So I started writing some of these original songs and I gathered up some more, the old classics, and grabbed a bunch of friends. And we just kind of went for it and turned out really good. And I always loved the song Holly Jolly Christmas with Burr Lives. And so I was just singing it because I was planning to record it. And I just started playfully saying, have a Holly, Dolly Christmas. I thought, what perfect got there for the island title?

It was like it was made for you. It's perfect. Yeah. You mentioned the duets. And boy, what a list you put together here. You've got Miley's on there. Willie Nelson is on there. Michael Bubla, your brother's on there.

Jimmy Fallon is on there. How did you kind of go through? Yeah, go through and decide who you wanted to sing with. Well, actually, when I first started, Jimmy Fallon kind of started that whole thing. I was just doing the album, and I was just recording all these songs. And I remembered years ago that when I was on Jimmy's show,

around the holiday season, he had asked me to say, the song, All I Want for Christmas is You, Mariah's song, I ain't know it well enough to sing it. And that's a hard song. And she's singing so great. And I thought, yeah, I don't think I want to touch that right now. So I felt bad about it. So I went home and I learned it. Then when I was recording the album, I was just going to sing it.

So I called Jimmy. I said, wouldn't you by any chance be willing to sing the all I want for Christmas is you with me on my album? He said, Lord, doll, I don't take myself serious as a singer. I said, I think you have a great voice. I hear you all the time. You know, we've done things together. He said, well, I'll try it if you promise that if it don't sound good, you won't use it. I said, I'll promise you that.

But I thought it turned out great. And so after I got him, I thought, well, why don't I get some more of these great people? So then I started asking other people to do it. And that's kind of how it all started. Now, Jimmy says he was very nervous because, as you say, he likes to mess around with singing. But now this is for real doing a duet with Dolly Parton on her big, Christmas album. So how did you convince him to finally let you put it on? Well, I'm convinced. I tried to convince him. I said, I really honestly think you have a great voice. I watch you all

the time. You do all these parodies with your voice is really good. And so he said, I don't know about being on a real record. I said, come on, trust me, on this one. So he did. And I think he turned out good. He works really well with Kent Wells, who produced the album. Kent talked to him, and they work back and forth, sending the files, you know, to his engineer, because we, of course, had to do all this different like we're doing now. Yeah. We had to send the stuff to, and they would work in their own studio. So when we got, Kent worked with him, and he felt very comfortable with Kent.

So we got it done. And after I said, if you don't like it, you know, I'll still keep my promise. And he said, no, I think it sounds pretty good. I think I'll let you do it. So that's what we did. Well, he rose to the occasion. You're right. He did a good job.

We were just talking a minute ago about the beautiful, beautiful song, Pretty Paper, which is your duet with Willie Nelson. And I didn't realize he wrote that song. Well, he did write that song. And it's been one of my favorite songs for so many years. Roy Orbison, of course, had a big hit. Willie recorded it, too, back when he wrote it. But Roy, I guess, had the biggest hit.

But I was putting this on the album, too. And I thought, you know, I'm going to see if Willie wants to sing on this with me. So I called him up. I said, well, Willie, would you sing on Pretty Paper? with me because I love the song. He said, are you crazy? I was like, I told you, he wrote the song crazy too. He said, of course I'll sing on it. Not only that, he played that guitar, and I just love that track. That is absolutely one of my favorite things on the album. Yeah, I agree. It is such a beautiful song. I think that's going to become a classic again with the two of you.

You've, last time I think I was down at Dollywood, it was also around Christmas time for your NBC movies, which were so successful. And we were talking about the meaning of Christmas to you and how important it was to you as a little girl and how much your mom especially instill that spirit in you. What does Christmas time mean to you, Dolly? Well, we were brought up, of course, my grandpa, as you know, was a preacher, my mom's dad, and we always had our little Christmas service at the church. But we were taught to, you know, brought up on what the true meaning of Christmas, you know, for us was the birth of Jesus and all that. But we all always celebrated, even though we didn't have all the glorious things like we have here now or all the presents.

But Mama always made everything special. We made our own little ornaments for the trees. And Mama always cooked something good, told all the good stories, you know, from the Bible. And we sing all the Christmas songs. So it was always a special time for us. Yeah, you do Christmas big now, I guess, a little different than it was in that two-room house, wasn't it? Yeah, it's a little different. But I always think about that.

And I always try to keep some traditions going. You know, I have a lot of the little things, the little ornaments and things that mom used to do and know how to do those, like making little bows out of rags and scarves, the colorful little bows that you can hang on your tree and the pine cones that we used to kind of hang on the tree. So you can make all kinds of things. But I always have my little traditional Christmas and a little Christmas tree. But of course, I like all the, now that I can afford it. I like to have it special. You've got some nice stuff there right behind you. And the Christmas spirit is really in you this year because it's not just the album. You've got this Netflix movie. Dolly Parton's Christmas

on the Square. You wrote music for that too. Tell us more about that executive producer, star writing music. You're doing it all here. Well, I'm very, very proud of this project. It is on Netflix and it comes out, I think, the 22nd is when it debuts on Netflix. But I wrote 14 original songs. It's a story. Sam Haskell had come to me with this idea. He's also my partner and executive producer on it. And so he told me he was going to write a book called Christmas on the square. And he kind of told me the premise of it. I said, why don't we do a musical instead?

And so I've always wanted to do a Christmas musical. So that's what we did. And, of course, it turned out so great. Maria Slaughter did a fantastic job writing the script and creating these characters. And, of course, Debbie Allen, she directed and choreographed it. And we've got Christine Berenski, who's like, fantastic. She plays the old Scrooge-type kids. character that's kind of going to sell the town out from under them because she's going to sell

it to a big mall like Walmart, that time of thing. So anyway, it's about me being an angel kind of in disguise in different ways trying to get her to change her ways. And so it's really got a lot of wonderful, you know, people. And of course, he's got Treat Williams plays the male part. And Janine Mason plays my little angel in training. And we've just got a lot of great people in And Jennifer Lewis does this killer song in it. And she owns the beauty shop. But it's just about what we're going through right now. It's about just a community and family and trying to just pull together and like with

love and try to just kind of find some unity and some peace and just kind of work together and make life a little better, which is what we should be doing right now. Yes, I agree. Well, you casually sort of said at the beginning of that answer, well, I wrote 13 or 14 songs for this movie. That's an album. So you're doing a Christmas album, you're writing an album, you're starring in this. Is that a, do you enjoy saying, okay, blank slate, I need 13 or 14 songs to make this musical work? And you just sit down and crank them out? Yeah, that's what I do. Wow. Because this is 14 original songs. And of course, we did this one last summer. Thank

goodness. We had this one completed, just completed, even sent over for all, you know, it's in all languages now. And so we got this one done just in time. So it was perfect. It was going to come out this year anyway. But now it's coming out now, but it's perfect timing. But we don't have an album of that one. That's just the music for the movie. We don't have a soundtrack as of yet. But anyway, if people like it, I guess there will eventually be one. But yeah, I wrote that before we started the Christmas album and all that. But that is how I do it. If I've got a project or if I've got something in mind, I'll just say, okay, sit your butt down, get your job done, and I'm able to write and rhyme and all of it anyway.

It seems to me, Dolly, just listening to you talk and watching how much work you continue to put out, that that fire still burns with you. I mean, you could coast and put out Greatest Hits album and do whatever you want to do right now, but boy, you sit down and you say, hey, let's make a musical, and I have to write 14 songs for it. Where does that fire come from in you? Yeah, I'd say I get to write. 14 songs, not I have to. Right.

Because, well, I love it. Well, first of all, I'm just very musical. I'm very creative and I have a lot of energy and I just, it is a fire that burns in me. I have that, you know, I have a lot of passion and I have a lot of love and I have a, you know, a lot of outlets and I'm able to do so many things, which I'm great for four. But I do, I work a lot, but I like the work too. I'm the kind of person that if I didn't have plenty to do, I'd turn all that energy in on myself and that's probably wouldn't be. too good. So I need to put it out there, not like put it in here. I just want to, I just want to be able to lift up people if I can and do something, put some joy out there and just kind of, you know,

glorify God and uplift people. I mean, that's what I want to do. Does that feel even more right now, Dolly, like an important mission because there is so much uplift that needs to be out there? People are struggling so hard with health and their lives and their jobs and everything else. Do you feel a special responsibility right now? You know, I do only because I'm in a position to help and people kind of look to me. You don't have to be religious to want something positive, a good positive message. You know, you just want somebody to talk some positive stuff, not to be so negative all the time. This world is so crazy right now. It's just awful. And so, like I said, whatever you believe in, you need to believe in something bigger than yourself, whatever you want to call it. But we need to

lift ourselves and each other up at this time. I just happen to draw from the spiritual base that I have and I have a lot of faith and I just pray every day that I can leave something good in the world, that I can do something good for somebody. And of course, I make money doing it, but it ain't about the money. I've often said that I count my blessings a lot more often than I count my money. Well, you've already done all that, Dolly. You've left us with so much already. Hey guys, thanks for listening to the Sunday Sit Down podcast. Stick around to hear more from Dolly Parton right after the break. Welcome back to the Sunday Sit Down podcast.

Now more of my conversation with Dolly Parton. I just got a few days ago in the mail this big, beautiful coffee table book. My goodness. And it is the story of all your songs, Dolly Parton songteller. Your fans are going to gobble this up. I could talk to you for two hours about it, but I picked a few of the songs, and it is the story behind the songs. Can I start with the first one when you were six years old, 1952, little tiny tassel top, not one of your biggest hits, but an important song, nevertheless. Nobody ever heard it except when I became a star. I sometimes talk about when I had that little, you know, the microphone with the tobacco sticks in the crack of the floor on tin cans singing those early songs.

But this was before I could write. My mom kept these songs got it. I don't even know if I was six at that time. But it was just about a little cob doll that Mama had made me because we grew corn and we had to shell it. And Daddy took it to the mill. And so, of course, we had shilks everywhere and cobs everywhere and tassels everywhere. So Mama had just kind of made a little rap around for this doll. Daddy put some poker, you know, the hot poker eyes for it.

Mama put the tassels back on her. So I was singing, I named her tassel to. And I was doing little tiny tassel to. I love you at Ophala. Hope you never go away. I want you to stay. And then, of course, I kept writing all the kind of things and that. So, Mom had got it out of a shoebox years later and gave it to me, along with a whole bunch of stuff.

She was fascinated that I could rhyme so good. Well, I was going to say, did she have a sense that you had something at six years old? Yeah, Mom knew, but what I've got to tell you, all my people are very musical. My mom's people is for, you know, they all played instruments. They all sing. Grow up, a lot of them in the church singing. But we were the family all the way through the years that were singing everybody's funeral or, you know, at any like weddings or anything like that, the special kind of singing, you know, pie suppers, barn dances, any of that stuff. Some of my people were always there picking and singing.

But I loved the music and I was, you know, there's 12, us kids, you know, and there's eight younger than me. and I have a sister and two brothers older, and I was kind of in that little spot where I wasn't getting enough attention, and Lord knows I must want it. I didn't know I needed it in that way particularly, but I just noticed that, you know, I would get a lot of attention writing these songs when I started playing guitar when I was seven and starting writing serious song.

And that's when I kind of, I thought, now this is something I'm getting attention with, and it's something I can do good. And my uncle Bill Owens took an interesting, in me and he used to take me around to all these places to sing, but it was just born in me. My grandpa said I came out singing in the crying in the key of D. And the rest is history. One of your most beautiful songs, I think, is Code of Many Colors.

And you just, you tell the story in this book about all the layers to that. And it was about your childhood, but it was also about so many other kids' childhoods. And kids today, frankly, can relate to it because it's about, feeling inferior or bullied or treating people the right way. Why is that song so important to you? Well, it's important to me personally, like you said, but it's important to me now because it has touched so many people's lives in so many ways that you wouldn't believe the male or the people that say that

this song changed my life in ways that, you know, because even if you're a handicapped or whatever, people have made fun of you sometime down the road or you've been embarrassed about something. But for me, it's like you said, it was about Mama, of course. Mama was precious to me. And every time I sing that song anymore, it's just like I'm holding her in my arms, you know. And so it's about that.

But as you said, they even have it, they even teach out of a little book in the schools in Superior County in certain places where they have that. In the schools that they talk about, you know, people being accepting and about the bullying and about love and about acceptance and about faith. And it really has a lot of, it really is a song of Many Colors. It's a, you know, not a life of Many Colors. So I just really am proud of it. The movie did well. And I have the Code of Many Colors book in the Imagination Library. So it just touches people and that touches me.

Yeah, I was going to ask you what that feels like, Dolly, to have somebody maybe who has a disability or somebody who feels like an outsider in some way, come up to you and say a song you wrote and recorded, gosh, what, 50 years ago now. touches me today. What does that feel like? You know, it feels good. And I don't know with the coat of many colors. I have people tell me this certain song, that song saved my life. I was suicidal and I didn't know what, and then I heard you singing light of a clear blue morning. I heard you singing this or that. And it really makes me feel like that's what God put me here for to be able to speak for people that can't, don't know how to speak for themselves or don't have the gift to write it, but that I can feel. enough for other people that I don't just write for me. I write for you and for them.

Everybody out there has feelings. So I feel blessed that I'm able to express myself. There are writers that are greater than me for sure, but nobody ever enjoys it more. That's right. That's right. I'm skipping around a little because there's so many, but I've got to ask you about Jolene, probably your most covered song, many of your fans' favorite song. I think the first time I came down and saw you at Dollywood, you told me a little of the story that your husband was spending a little too much time at the bank for somebody who didn't have much money, I think, was the way you said. See, that song is kind of kind of a two or three-parter. Her name was not Jolene. That's true that I was jealous of this pretty girl at the bank. And my husband said, he was getting alone. You know, he was an asphalt paving. And I always say, you know, he said, oh, I was trying to get a deal on a roller. I said, don't you think you need to be talking, you know,

to one of these hairy-legged men about a roller and a truck. I said, I think you, you know, you best kind of get on back to the house. It's going to be your ass and your fault. So that's kind of how that got to happen. But the little girl, the name Jolene, I was signing an autograph years ago on stage, and this little girl said, would you sign it to Jolene? I said, oh, I love that name. I said, I bet your daddy's name Joe and your name is.

after your dad. She said, no, she's Jolene. So I just kept saying, I said, I want to write a song about you someday. And so I just was singing Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, so I wouldn't forget the name. Got back to my bus, and I wrote the song and just kind of drew from all that other little stuff to go with it. Well, I wonder where that little girl is now to have an anthem written about me. I've been

looking for her. I've had different people say, is it me? Is it me? Or their name would be spelled different or whatever. But I never have, I have some male from some people. But someday I'm going to find her. Let's track her down. I'll help you with that.

That'll be our mission for our next interview. We'll meet you up with Joeline. What do you think it is about that song, Dolly, that hits people so hard and they love it so much? Well, I think there's a few reasons. It's a really singable song, first of all. And people love to sing. I mean, it's all I'm saying is Jolene, Jolene, Jolene,

anybody can do that. But I did try to get the message. I really do think that people can relate to that. Because no matter how good looking or how pretty you are, there's always somebody out there that might be a little prettier that might kind of, you know, or make you feel like that. And so it's like I think that whole feeling of don't take my man, you can have anybody you wanted, but this is the only one for me. And so I really think that people relate to that. But it's just a fun song to sing, too. Now, I will always love you.

There's some mythology around that song that maybe you wrote Jolene and I will always love you on. the same night or the same week. Can that be true? Well, it is. It's got to be true within that same time frame because I still do use my little cassette recorder to record. But I, when we were looking through my files to get all my old cassettes before they got destroyed. So out of my basement, we brought this stuff up and they were putting them on the hard drives

or whatever they call it to save them. And so the guy that was doing it, he said, do you realize that Jolene? and I will always love you. We're on the same cassette. Wow. And I knew they were on the same album, though. They were both recorded in 1972, I think, on the Jolene album, and I will always love you. So evidently, they were written in the same time frame.

So that must have been a really good night. I must have really had some good copy that night. I was going to say, that might be the greatest night in the history of American songwriting. That's just incredible. And that you, it's, I was interested to read you say that when you heard Whitney Houston sing your song, it was one of the most powerful moments, not just of your career, but of your life. What do you mean by that? Well, you know, I don't know if you have something you can relate to it for, but something that's just been the most powerful feeling you ever had. You just didn't know how to even self-contain yourself because I had sent the song in that asked me about it.

but that was months before, and I didn't know if they had done it or wrong. And so I had given permission and all that. So I was just driving home one day, had the radio on, and then I heard her singing that, and he still didn't click. And then I thought, it was like a dog here in his neighbors. What is that?

Then all of a sudden she started, when she started singing the song, it was just like, I can't tell you, It was just like acid or something. It was just like, oh, my gosh. That's like, I always love you. And it was overwhelming. And then she started singing it bigger and bigger. I had to pull out.

I pulled it over to the side of the road because I was afraid I read. Because it was that, you know, you just can't imagine it. And so it was just to know that my song, that little song of mine could be that big and that great. And with her singing like that, it was just overwhelming. That's a beautiful story. Yeah, she did a great job with it, as well as you sing it and beautifully. She did it in her own way. It was incredible.

I also love the story. I got to get one more of your big hits in here, 9 to 5 of the story of being on the set of the movie that, of course, you were starring in and having to write this song, but not being able to really sort of play your guitar and do all the things you'd normally do and tapping it out a little bit on a desk or something? No, I did it on my fingernails. Yeah, I don't know if you can hear that or not. Can you hear that? Sure. Anyway, it sounded like a typewriter, and I didn't have my guitar because I didn't want to get too scattered because we were trying to stay in the mood, and they were doing lights and all that. So I would just look around and I would just get ideas, watching whatever was going on on the set.

So it was about women in the workplace, so I would just kind of do my, you know, a tomlight of me and still to do the kitchen or work and run to the top. And I've just kind of play my little fingers, go back to the hotel night, write down the words, or get my gift. guitar and start singing it. But that's kind of how that all works. And then I played my nails on the real record just for fun because all the girls got a kick out of me singing it to them, going around. Even Jane and Lilly to this day, every time they see me, they start going, you know, we all do like, you better have acrylic nails, though, which I don't think either of them do. So they're not, they don't play it as good as that. That is an incredible story. And kind of it strikes me going back to your roots and, you know, playing a washboard or something and just

doing whatever is in front of you. We do that. That was a big instrument in our family, was the Red Bull, back home with doing all that. But it does sound like that. That is incredible. What a great story. You've done so much, Dolly, with the imagination library. I don't want to undersell you, but I think it's 143 or 144 million books that have been put in children's hands. You've done so much in your community in East Tennessee when they've hit hard times with the fires and everything else. Why is that kind of giving and that kind of philanthropy?

using your position so important to you? Well, I believe that when you are in a position to help, you should, and I think that everybody should have favorite charities. I think if you choose things that are important to you, that are personal to you, you do better at that because you're going to spend the rest of your life if you take on a charity spending time with that. But the Imagination Library, of course, you know, I kind of based that on the fact that my daddy couldn't read and write,

and he was always bothered by that. So I started that program to have my dad helped me with that and got him involved. And he lived long enough to see it doing great and to hear the kids call me the book lady. And it really brought him out of his shell to think he'd done something special and important. And I told him, Daddy, you know, a lot of people can't read right. There's nothing to be ashamed of. He didn't get a chance to go to school because he was poor too and lived back in the mountains. But we're so happy.

We're hoping by the end of the year we might have given out 150 million books. We started in our little county with daddy. Then we went all over Tennessee, went to Canada, and now we're all over the world, different places. I mean, I really believe, Dolly, that your story is one of the great American stories of all time. To grow up in that little house with two rooms with the 12 kids and to be where you are and to have a theme park not far from there bearing your name and to be in a position to help these communities. Do you stop from time to time and think, my gosh, look where I came from and look where I am today?

No, I don't stop. I just thank God every day for it. I know exactly who I am, where I came from, what I hope to do, and I just ask for direction and strength to do it. But I don't ever forget, and I don't want to forget. I love the fact that I'm a Tennessee girl, that I grew up poor. It's been, you know, it's made for a wonderful story to have a, you know, the humble beginning, Cinderella story. But it really is my story. And I really love it. And I live it. And every day I try to do something. good to thank God for the gift and to, you know, to just try to help with my success, whether my family or whether there's somebody else's family. Hey, guys, thanks for listening to the Sunday Sit Down podcast. Stick around to hear more from Dolly Parton right after the break. Welcome back to the Sunday Sit Down podcast. Now more of my conversation with Dolly Parton. You were talking about how tough these times are and how you wanted to put out these positive stories and songs. Do you, you know, have a message for people right now just through the pandemic, but also it feels like we're a

divided country. What would you say to your fans and to America right now? Well, I have written a lot of songs. I wrote a song. I don't know if you heard it a while back. I put it out called When Life is Good Again, I'll be a better friend, a better person when. But I have a new one that I'm going to be doing pretty soon. It's called I Still Believe. And it talks about, you know, how the world is so divided, you know, like, you know, like so scared and, you know, weary about what happens next. This world is, you know, in such a mess. But through it all, I still believe.

And I believe to my very core, we'll walk again in the sunshine by the seashore. We'll dance and sing and be happy again. But it's also about the division. It talks about that love and faith can heal the body, mind. And so we'll unmask, you know, this face of doom and get back out into the world again. But the only way we're going to do that, though, is to really. take inventory. We're going to have to dig down and find some love. I think we've just become solely body because people just seem to love to hate. You know, they love to fight.

They love to, you know, it's like a game sometimes. Well, it's not a game. This is really life. We need to try to help one another. We need to try to do a little better. And we need to, this is the Christmas season coming up, but we need to carry that Christmas spirit of peace on earth and loving one another. We need to carry that into the new year. Lord knows. I hope next year is better than this one because it's crazy. Who knows?

But we still have to believe, we have to keep the faith. We have to do the best we can. We can't save the world, but we can save the world we're living in. And by doing the best we can, we might just send out just enough love to maybe some of them can get together and then it'll just grow. Maybe I'm dreaming, but I don't think so. I still believe. I believe there's a higher power.

I think you're one of the last people that we can all agree on, Dolly. So it's important to hear that from you. Am I right as I listen to you and as I read some of your interviews, that you're more willing these days to kind of step out a little bit and make your voice heard? And not in a political way, but to say you made a comment about Black Lives Matter. You said, well, of course Black Lives Matter. Am I right that you're stepping out a little more than you have in the past? No, I'm not stepping out.

Anytime anybody asks me a question, I just say what I feel. I mean, how can you not think that everybody matters? We are all God's children. I don't care what color we are. We are all God's children. We need to be loved. We need to love.

And we should all be accepted. I'm not about people causing, you know, craziness. I'm not about violence. I'm not about anything. I'm about human beings. My place comes from a place of Christianity and humanity. And I just love people. I want to be loved and I think we're expected to love.

We're supposed to love our neighbor as ourselves. We don't, but we're supposed to. But we could try a little harder if we would. I think that's a good way to end, Dolly. That's a great message. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you for putting all this positivity and love out into the world. You always do and we need it now more than ever.

Thank you, Dolly. Well, good. We all need love one another. Yes, we do. Amen to that. Thank you, Dolly. Yeah. Merry Christmas to you.

Merry Christmas. We give our eternal thanks for Dolly Parton, for all she gave us, for all she left to this world. She will be missed, to put it mildly. And my thanks to all of you for listing again this week. If you want to hear more of these conversations with our guests every week, be sure to click follow so you never miss an episode.